William McGirt

William Curtis McGirt III (born June 21, 1979) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour.

Early life and amateur career In 1979, McGirt was born in Fairmont, North Carolina, U.S. He grew up playing both baseball and golf and received scholarship offers from colleges in North Carolina and South Carolina.

After being recruited by multiple colleges for both sports, McGirt decided to play college golf at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. While playing for Wofford, in 1998, he earned the Southern Conference's Freshman of the Year award. He won three collegiate events for the Terriers including the conference championship his senior year. In 2001, McGirt graduated.

Professional career McGirt turned professional in 2004 and spent several years playing on mini-tours. His first break came by reaching the final stage of the 2009 PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament (Q-School), allowing him to play on the Nationwide Tour in 2010. He ended 2010 at 34th on that tour's money list, then finished runner-up at Q-School to earn his PGA Tour card for 2011. McGirt qualified for the FedEx Cup Playoffs in his rookie season, advancing as far as the Deutsche Bank Championship and finishing 83rd in the FedEx Cup standings. He finished 141st on the 2011 PGA Tour money list. Unfortunately, it was the money list that mattered at the time and McGirt had to go back to Q School to regain his Tour privileges or be relegated to the conditional category. He qualified for the tour in 2012 by finishing T13 in the 2011 Q-School.

McGirt's first appearance in a major was at the PGA Championship in 2012, where he missed the cut. He had three runner-up finishes before his first win at age 36 in June 2016 at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio. He won on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff with Jon Curran. It was McGirt's first professional win since his mini-tour victory nine years earlier in 2007. He earned $1.53 million for winning the Memorial, almost 100 times more than the $16,000 prize for his mini-tour win. The win earned him a three-year PGA Tour exemption, moved him to 44th in the Official World Golf Ranking, and qualified him for the U.S. Open, PGA Championship, and the Masters.

Tarheel Tour wins (1)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut "T" indicates a tie for a place

Summary Most consecutive cuts made – 3 (2016 PGA – 2017 U.S. Open) Longest streak of top-10s – 1

Results in The Players Championship CUT = missed the halfway cut "T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play "T" = Tied

FedEx Cup final standing YearRank2011 832012 502013 1002014 612015 692016 242017 852018 1162020 247